What technology should you bone up on if you want a job in an investment bank these days? When we asked this question 18 months ago, the answer was unquestionably Java, which had more than double the number of jobs than its nearest competing programming language.
Now, the answer is not so clear cut. We analysed the number of technology jobs being advertised on eFinancialCareers and matched this against the number of people professing to possess these skills on our CV database. We have also canvassed specialist IT in finance recruiters to get their opinions on what is driving demand. The results are the six programming languages, in order of preference, below.
1. Java – 7 candidates for every available job
Java ranks first due to the volume of jobs on offer rather than the scarcity of the skill-set. Java remains core to the vast majority of investment banking technology projects, from low latency trading systems to market data pricing systems and order booking management platforms, says Paul Elworthy, senior manager at recruiters Ikas International.
So, what will set you apart? “Good relationship management skills and understanding how to connect to the business, be engaged in regulator communication and work in an iterative way will ensure that good Java developers are rarely lacking in opportunities,” says Elworthy.
2. C# – 8.8 candidates for every available job
Investment banks are bringing in C# WPF developers from the bottom up – offering packages for graduate willing to make the move into an investment banking tech role and bringing in old hands to assist with everything from front to back projects to cross-asset class trading platforms. Banks like SocGen and Morgan Stanley are currently hiring, looking for people to customise development of GUI components. Rates appears to be an area of focus for the recruitment of C# developers currently.
3. Python – 9.3 candidates for every available job
The use of Python in investment banking technology platforms has accelerated rapidly over the past couple of years and while our figures suggest that there are enough skills in the market to meet demand, the fact that Python developers have been awarded a £40k pay rise over the past 12 months suggests otherwise. Elworthy says that investment banks are training up C++ and Java developers in-house on Python to meet the new demands on their IT teams.
Stephen Grant, managing director of technology recruiters Cititec, adds: “Python skills are currently hugely required for research based roles, as it’s faster to write code in this than C++, but arguably not as robust or offering as much flexibility, when it comes to actual production code,” he says. “Cross-market risk management and trading systems are using Python (sometimes mixed with C++) and many of the banks when choosing to build front-to-bank cross asset risk systems have used this language.”
4. HTML 5 – 10.3 candidates for every available job
Investment banks aren’t only about the latency and performance of their technology platform, increasingly they want it to look slick. The web applications that support research and trading applications are ever more important and HTML 5 knowledge is now a desirable asset – usually coupled with CSS or Java – suggests Elworthy.
“Banks are more conscious of creating customer-friendly applications in the digital world,” he says.
5. C++ – 15.1 candidates for every available job
When you think of C++, you think of either quants or high frequency trading, but the latter is not where the demand lies, believes Grant. C++ is still being used for quant pricing models across structured products and derivatives, he says, but HFT firms are not recruiting developers in big numbers currently. Assuming you have C++ expertise and want to work in an investment bank, what sort of projects will you be working on?
“Demand is high and important for some real time applications (risk engines, data feeds and the like) as well as the connectivity for eTrading, eMM, and algo execution and dark pools. These are areas that most banks are active in,” he says.
6. SQL – 16.7 candidates for every available job
The number of jobs requesting SQL is high – nearly as sizable as Java – but the problem is that the skill-set appears relatively common. Front office development roles often bundle SQL in with Java as part of a broad programming skill-set, but business analysts for data projects and specialist analytics projects are still ensuring demand for specialist remains robust, says Elworthy.
“Core SQL development roles are an area where a lot of businesses are investing currently,” he says.
